1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a currency and ticket validator apparatus that can automatically separate currency from non-currency and store each in a separate compartment of a dual section cash box for intended use in electronic gaming machines, vending machines and the like.
2. General Background and State of the Art
In the early 1990's there was a fundamental change in the performance and capability of gaming machines initiated by the incorporation of bill acceptors into such machines. Bill acceptors are devices which receive paper currency (“currency”) and, using a validator having both hardware and software components, the received currency is scanned with a variety of sensors and the sensor information is analyzed to determine (1) authenticity and (2) denomination of the currency from the scanned data. If the scanned currency is determined to be authentic currency, e.g. a United States $1, $5, $10, $20, $50 or $100 bill or other legal tender currency, it is transported to a cash box within the bill acceptor for storage.
Based upon the denomination of the accepted currency, a signal is sent from the validator to the host machine's controller or processor to cause the machine to accumulate a corresponding amount of credits within the machine's credit meter representing the cash value or credits available for purchasing products or wagering, in the case of a gaming machine. As the user purchases products from or plays the machine, the purchase price or wager is debited from the credit meter. In the case of a gaming machine, wins are either accumulated as credits or paid out in coins. Acceptors of this type are known and are discussed for example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,863,039 issued Jan. 26, 1999 to Suzuki.
Until recently, gaming machines paid out all winnings in coins. This disadvantaged both the player and the casino. First, if the hopper did not have enough coins to pay out the winnings, the machine locked up and remained so until an authorized person reset it. This reduced the amount of time that a machine was in play, resulting in lost business to the casino. Second, the player had to wait for the casino to reset the machine and manually “hand-pay” the player the winnings before the player could start playing on that machine again. Addressing both concerns, a second generation bill acceptor has been developed which can store paper currency and can function as a “recycler” of currency, accepting any type of currency from a customer and returning for payouts a selected denomination of currency to the customer. Machines using these new validators can pay out larger winnings in combinations of paper currency and coins without locking up and requiring a hand-pay. However, not all casinos have chosen to utilize the recycling feature of these new bill acceptors in all of their machines. To achieve similar goals, some casinos are contemplating the use of non-currency tickets unique to the casino.
Casinos are introducing such tickets or coupons to increase the retention rates and make the machines more self-sufficient. The tickets substitute as cash within the casino and on most other gaming machines in that casino. When a player wins a large sum of money, the machine will return tickets printed in various denominations, supplemented by coins, to equal the amount of winnings. The player can exchange the ticket for cash at a cashier's window or use the ticket in other machines in that casino. Because the gaming machines may also be able to print the tickets if necessary, the need for human resources is further limited. Casinos have benefitted from increased player retention as a result of the use of non-currency tickets.
Casinos that use these tickets, however, are facing problems integrating the tickets into their current counting systems. Generally, gaming machines store the valid tickets along with the valid paper currency in a single hopper or note box. As needed, casino staff will replace the note box filled with tickets and currency with an empty note box. The filled note box is taken to a counting room where the note box's contents are counted and sorted. The cash counting and sorting equipment in the counting rooms are limited to counting and sorting a maximum of six different “notes.” This limits, for example, the counting machine to separately stacking the $1, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100 bills. Tickets, a seventh type of note accepted by the second generation types of validators, are thus counted and sorted as “suspect notes” by the sorting equipment. In general, a “suspect notes” classification was created primarily to separate out counterfeit currency. Because the sorting machines are not designed to handle a large volume of suspect notes, the suspect notes bin of the counting machine was made comparatively small. As a result, when tickets are incorporated as an accepted currency, the suspect notes bin fills up very quickly. This slows down the reconciliation process.
Accordingly, a system allowing continuous play and rapid counting and sorting would be beneficial to the gaming industry. A change in the method of ticket collection and sorting in the gaming machine would ensure that the operations in the counting and sorting room are not affected. Other devices such as vending machines and pay-point service stations having bill and ticket acceptors can suffer the same problems of increased cost to manually separate out the tickets from the currency when the money in the note box is counted and separated. All these devices could benefit from an improved separator mechanism within the validator assembly and a dual storage note and ticket hopper system.
The above described and many other features and attendant advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.